OS LION on G4?

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Level 1

4 points

OS LION on G4?

Hi,

I've an IMAC osx leopard and an Old POWERBOOK G4 Tiger. I would like to make them perfectly integrated. I'm thinking to move tiger to osx leopard or both (Powerbook & IMAC) to SNOW LEOPARD. Now i just seen that on summer LION will be released.
What do you think about lion on POWERBOOK G4? do you think it could run?
What are your suggestion to make this two machines fully integrated? LEOPARD, SNOW LEOPARD or LION maybe?

Thank you in advance,
Alberto

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), IMAC, OSX 10.5.8

Posted on Mar 19, 2011 1:39 AM

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Answer 1

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

Mar 19, 2011 5:37 AM in response to alberto_p

Welcome to the Apple discussions.

The last operating system you can install on a G4 is OS X Leopard 10.5.8. Snow Leopard and Lion require Intel-based systems and won't run on a PowerPC G4 system. If you want them both on the same operating system, the Leopard is your only choice.

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Answer 2

Network 23

Level 6

12,351 points

Mar 24, 2011 1:11 AM in response to BGreg

And it's not just about needing Intel CPUs. Lion, like the last couple OS versions, assumes a certain level of CPU power, and assumes certain power and RAM on the graphics card, to pull off some of its advanced features. G4 Macs do not have those technologies or power. For Apple to put Lion on a G4 would require not only coding for PowerPC, but coding up substitutions for all the missing hardware, and expanding the testing budget and schedule to make sure all those workarounds worked right. Even if they did, many features would still run slowly or not at all since G4s are only up to 1.25GHz with weak graphics cards. Even the cheapest Mac today blows that away with at least two cores, each running double the speed of a G4.

Leopard is a great system on a G4, it's not that far behind Lion in day-to-day use.

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OS LION on G4?